Marantz Cd 63 Mark II - KJ Signiture. CD's jumping - Help needed please.

chrisjoanne · 01-02-2005, 1:42 PM

Hi,
Having purchased a Marantz Cd player - 63 Mark II "Signiture" around 8 years ago now for £500 I have experienced most of my Cd's now jump or stutter.
I have spoken to a guy from a local Hi-Fi store and he said it would "probably" be the laser (which I guessed), and if it needed changed they would need to send the unit of to Marantz Head Office. They could not change the laser ? ? ?
The cost could be in the region of £150 + postage ! So my answer here is, does anyone have any ideas what my next step should be?
Is there any point in paying what could be nearly £200 to update a 8 year old player?
Or should I resign myself to the fact I should buy a new player?
I purchased a Roksan Kandy Amp last year and therefore if I did buy a Cd player I think I should look for something at the £400 mark - which I can't afford.

Therefore, does anyone know if I could get a laser at a decent price?

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Chris
Studentmania - promotional codes and discount vouchers

02-02-2005, 12:12 AM

The fact its 8 years old doesn't mean new models will sound better.

I've been through various Marantz CD players (theyve ALL packed up in one way or another, you should think yourself lucky its taken eight years for yours to!). I still have a 63KI infact, theres no denying they look timelessly good and are well built. The speed of the mechanisms and reading CDs and fast-forwarding, selecting tracks etc is perfect, so is the beautifully bright, clear yet elegant display - all this with direct track selection on the front are why i keep it. I know of no other non-megabucks player as ergonomically good as this (with one exception - see end of message!)

Cautionary point number one: do NOT buy a new Marantz on the presumption it must be better. The sound is much more shut in and lacking in treble vigour - the only true good point of the Marantz. But even worse - the build quality is nowhere near as good, and they are pigs to use. For example, if you fast forward, the CD6000 series showed advances in every 15 seconds or so, not to the second like the 63 series.

But £150 for repair isnt worth it, especially when a cheap Sony CD player has fab ergonomics too (including surprisingly ingenious jogwheel) and a much more enjoyable sound than the Marantz. This is through an Audiolab 8000S and 8000P and mission 754 freedoms, plus other setups, and headphones etc. The Sony wins every time. There's no need to think £400 will get you something better than £80. Through a Roksan Kandy, I wouldn't waste my money on a more expensive player - I learnt the hard way by believing mags, buying various players, then finally seeing the light. The truth is, although players are definitely different when auditioned through quality ancillaries, whether they are better/worse is a different matter. To put it into context: in my experience, the interconnect makes a bigger difference than the player itself! (i have a lot of interconnects too: my QED Qunex, Monster Interlink and Van den Hul all give the Sony a blockbuster sound).

So maybe try one from Argos or something, or at your hifi dealer. He may snigger at first, but Im confident who will have the last laugh...

chrisjoanne · 02-02-2005, 9:39 AM

Thanks for your reply superpixel. It made for some interesting reading.
I think I'm going to take the player in to another local Hi-Fi store and get a second opinion.
I think you have also pushed me into actually correcting the fault instead of purchasing a new unit. The Marantz player (when working) was superb, and I now feel fixing the problem could be the right solution.

Chris

tom_nieto · 02-02-2005, 9:59 AM

Which Sony CD player are you using superpixel? I must admit, when I played my XE570 through my cyrus 3 amp just before I got a cyrus CD player it did sound fantastic. Not quite as good as the cyrus one (the looks didn't match too well either), but it was one of the best CD players that I've ever used and heard.

mhifoe · 02-02-2005, 10:36 AM

The cause of your problem is almost certainly a faulty laser.

I have a CD53 which has recently started skipping. It already had its laser replaced under warranty when it was 2 years old.

Looking around the internet, you can pick up a replacement laser for about 20 quid from http://www.grandata.co.uk or http://www.cpc.co.uk.

I will be dismantling my player this evening to check the model number and will order a replacement laser tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on.

Note that there are instructions for changing the laser on a CD63 here: http://iangclark.net/projects/CD63/CD63.html

MagicBoy · 02-02-2005, 1:18 PM

I've got a "vanilla" CD63 which had an intermittent skipping problem. I googled around and found the link above so decided to strip it down to have a look. The problem was with the lubrication on the transport which had dried up. 20 minutes of my time and a £4 can of silicone grease from the local electronics emporium sorted the problem and it sounds better than ever.

The vanilla CD63 uses the CDM12.1 transport, but I think the KI uses a later version (12.4?). The CDM12.1 transport was under £20 for the part, so £150 sounds a bit steep for a repair.

mhifoe · 02-02-2005, 1:25 PM

I hadn't considered the possibility that the problem could be caused by a lack of lubrication. I'll bear that in mind when I dismantle mine.

A CDM12.4 transport is £20 + VAT from cpc. Not that much more than the .1 version.

GFS AV · 02-02-2005, 1:36 PM

Chrisjoanne,

I had exactly the same problem with my CD-63 a while back. Not much you can do unfortunately.

I read the part saying you have a ROKSAN Kandy amp. I have the ROKSAN Kandy MKIII CD/DVD player which I may be interested in selling if you're interested. According to a 'HIFI World' review, it's as good as a £400 CD player, and I would second that.

Let me know if you're interested.

chrisjoanne · 02-02-2005, 8:11 PM

Some excellent posts here......many thanks.

When I get a spare hour I'm going to take a look at the links you have posted. I've got my fingers crossed that I can get this unit fixed for around £20-£30. I might dismantle the unit in the next day or so and then post my findings.

As for the ROKSAN Kandy MKIII CD/DVD player......I'll be honest and say I don't really like buying electronic units "second hand". I've had really bad luck in the past with buying from new (I think I'm on to my 5th 32" TV), so unfortunately I've been put off from buying "as new" or second hand, but thanks anyway GFS AV.

Hopefully I'll get another post on here by the weekend.

Cheers
Chris

mhifoe · 03-02-2005, 9:03 AM

I dismantled my CD53 last night and discovered that the rails for the laser were completely dry.

I scraped some grease off the drawer runners and lubricated the laser guides. After that it worked perfectly!

What form does the skiipping take on your player chrisjoanna?
If it plays fairly normally but has regular 1/2 - 1 second gaps it may also be caused by stiction in the laser mechanism.
If it emits a whining noise and has trouble playing the disc the laser probably needs replacing.

chrisjoanne · 04-02-2005, 3:12 AM

Right then..... I decided last night to have a little look inside the unit and followed the advice from mhifoe and took a look at this web site: http://iangclark.net/projects/CD63/CD63.html

After taken the unit to bits I found myself stuck at this part:

"You can now see where the 6 wires are connected. Two wires go to the spindle motor, two to the laser motor, and 2 to the laser position switch. Make a note of these and note that the two motors have coloured indentifying dots - the spindle motor has a red dot, the laser motor has a blue dot. Now unsolder these 6 wires."

I've never picked up a solder iron in my life. Is this an easy job?

I understand I will have to solder the wires back into position from the new laser. Is this straightforward?

I may buy the new laser and take the mechanism to my local Hi-Fi dealer but I've got a feeling they may not want to know now that I've started dismantling the unit.

Cheers
Chris

Sorry, just to add that the player will "click" or Skip maybe every 40-60 seconds

mhifoe · 04-02-2005, 9:44 AM

The skipping about once a minute sounds like the problem I had which was solved by greasing the runners.

Does there appear to be much grease on the laser mechanism? You can grease the runners without doing any soldering.

Try unclipping the small motor with the corkscrew drive and see if the laser assembly moves freely. If it doesn't, try adding some silicone grease (you can probably scrape a bit off the cd drawer runners with a small flat bladed screwdriver.

Trevk · 06-02-2005, 1:25 AM

I have the same CD as yourself chrisjoanne, prob about the same age. Not noticed any skipping as yet though. Its true that newer players are not always going to be better, may be different.

Hope you get it sorted cheaply.
Trev

mattross · 06-02-2005, 10:53 AM

I just sold mine to a friend. Only ever had a skipping problem on two CDs. One of them was clearly scratched and I'm not surprised that didn't play, the other had no visible marks at all. I hope it's not the sign of things to come.

chrisjoanne · 12-02-2005, 1:47 PM

Having paid a local guy £6 to unsolder the cables for me and then connect them to the new laser I can now say my problems are now totally fixed.

I spent an hour last night connecting the laser back into the unit and had both my fingers and legs crossed when I pressed "play" for the first time.
What I heard was magical. No jumping, clicking or stuttering. Superb!

I've now played around 4 hours of music and have had no problems at all.

I would just like to say a massive thank you to all that posted with their thoughts and a very big thank you to mhifoe who supplied the link on how to change the laser.

Total cost to fix problem £26 !

Cheers again

Chris

mattross · 13-02-2005, 2:08 PM

Not sure if U already said, but where did U buy the replacement laser unit from?

chrisjoanne · 14-02-2005, 8:55 AM

Hi

I got the laser from http://www.grandata.co.uk (another recommended site)

An excellent site which sells loads of electrical stuff.

Chris

mattross · 14-02-2005, 10:25 PM

Thanks, I'll bookmark that in case my sold CD63-MkIIKISig ever plays up.

02-02-2005, 12:12 AM	#2
superpixel Guest Posts: n/a	The fact its 8 years old doesn't mean new models will sound better. I've been through various Marantz CD players (theyve ALL packed up in one way or another, you should think yourself lucky its taken eight years for yours to!). I still have a 63KI infact, theres no denying they look timelessly good and are well built. The speed of the mechanisms and reading CDs and fast-forwarding, selecting tracks etc is perfect, so is the beautifully bright, clear yet elegant display - all this with direct track selection on the front are why i keep it. I know of no other non-megabucks player as ergonomically good as this (with one exception - see end of message!) Cautionary point number one: do NOT buy a new Marantz on the presumption it must be better. The sound is much more shut in and lacking in treble vigour - the only true good point of the Marantz. But even worse - the build quality is nowhere near as good, and they are pigs to use. For example, if you fast forward, the CD6000 series showed advances in every 15 seconds or so, not to the second like the 63 series. But £150 for repair isnt worth it, especially when a cheap Sony CD player has fab ergonomics too (including surprisingly ingenious jogwheel) and a much more enjoyable sound than the Marantz. This is through an Audiolab 8000S and 8000P and mission 754 freedoms, plus other setups, and headphones etc. The Sony wins every time. There's no need to think £400 will get you something better than £80. Through a Roksan Kandy, I wouldn't waste my money on a more expensive player - I learnt the hard way by believing mags, buying various players, then finally seeing the light. The truth is, although players are definitely different when auditioned through quality ancillaries, whether they are better/worse is a different matter. To put it into context: in my experience, the interconnect makes a bigger difference than the player itself! (i have a lot of interconnects too: my QED Qunex, Monster Interlink and Van den Hul all give the Sony a blockbuster sound). So maybe try one from Argos or something, or at your hifi dealer. He may snigger at first, but Im confident who will have the last laugh...
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